Increases in medical costs are outpacing inflation, a new report has found. The 45th National Healthcare Trend Survey by Buck, a Gallagher Company, is a longstanding effort to track the trends in health care costs and the latest twice-yearly report found that health provider systems are trying to rebound from revenue lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also found that like the U.S. economy in general, health care has been undergoing a period of higher inflation.

The report, which surveyed nearly 100 insurers and health plan administrators, found that the overall medical trend reported was averaging 6.8% to 7.3%, up 50 to 100 basis points from the trends reported in the prior survey–although the report noted a wide range of variation. "As the price of gas, food, and other goods and services increases due to inflation, medical trend factors used by insurers to set premium rates have clearly been incrementally affected as well," said Kelly Conlin, managing director and chief actuary, U.S. Health Financial & Actuarial Consulting at Gallagher. "But we're also seeing greater use of diagnostic tests and increased spending on research and development. While this investment may ultimately be the key to containing health care cost increases and improving patient outcomes, these advances tend to result in higher upfront development costs."